DURING the last economic boom energy use soared, and electricity from coal-fired power stations and petrol consumption made up a big proportion of household consumption, a report by the Australian Bureau of Statistics has found.
Australia's energy use jumped 15 per cent over the six years to 2007. The mining industry accounted for a big increase in power to feed the nation's export boom in black coal, uranium and natural gas. The figures confirm the image of Australia as one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gas per head in the world.
The most recent figures from the Department of Climate Change, released yesterday, show the nation's emissions still growing at 1.5 per cent each year. In almost every area of life, including the home, on the road, in the bush and in remote mining operations, Australians used growing amounts of fossil fuels over the six-year period. Electricity production grew 15 per cent and black coal remained the largest contributor to the nation's energy supply.
The ABS figures were released as the Opposition and independent senators yesterday delayed a vote on the Government's carbon pollution reduction scheme until August. The scheme is supposed to cut Australia's greenhouse gas emissions between 5 per cent and 25 per cent below 2000 levels by 2020, with the higher target dependent on a tough global climate deal being achieved in Copenhagen.
While the next round of figures are expected to show energy use and greenhouse emissions flattening out with the downturn, the long-term trend in the ABS statistics show how difficult it will be for Australia to cut its emissions by the upper figure of 25 per cent by 2020.
Without a tough plan to cut emissions, the Australian Conservation Foundation campaigner Tony Mohr said, emissions were likely to rise by 20 per cent by 2020 rather than fall.
The Opposition says it wants more concessions to big export industries before it will pass the scheme. And yesterday the NSW Government was still pressing the federal Climate Change Minister, Penny Wong, for more compensation for the state's coal-fired power generators.
While NSW supported the carbon pollution reduction scheme, a spokesman for the NSW Treasurer, Eric Roozendaal, confirmed the State Government was continuing talks with Senator Wong over free permits for the generators. Only 1 per cent of Australia's energy came from renewable sources during the six years to 2007.
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